CHAPTER TWO

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will explain about the research of the project that has been chosen. At the core of
every system’s efficiency is the availability of services because very often users rate the whole
system performance depending on the satisfaction they get in using such services. To meet users’
needs and expectations, almost every online student management has a myriad of services. For
instance, (Maere, 2011) explains that the SMS handles the administration part of students which
includes; admission, examination records, assessment process, finance, room allocation, transcripts,
students union electronic voting, mobile text messaging, examination results feedback. Therefore, it
is certain that in most institutions of higher learning, online student management systems are
created in house to assist in registration of students, student online profiling, financial recording,
examination grades records, transcript generation, student accommodation management, and
keeping student records (Maere, 2011; College of Medicine (CoM), 2016 & Mzuzu University
Annual Report, 2015)

The system has come up with many functionalities for educational institutions to track the student
progress and managing attendance (Isbudeen et.al, 2016). It helps both student and guardian to keep
track of student progress without visiting to the college. It also notifies student and guardian during
the time of important events which are happening in institution. One more feature is guardian get
alerted whenever student get failed in the exam or student not able to meet the expected attendance
average. Student Information Report System (SIRS) is application software and which has intention
to begin a conductive and direct interchanging the statistics in a secure platform to coalesce with
students, faculties, parents and the college/schooladministration.

The student information has the particulars (like register numbers, date-of-birth, sex, parent phone
number, address, parent name,etc.) invade to the system by the faculties. All these particularsis
stored in the database. SIRS application is trouble free to use in schools, colleges, universities, and
any other educational institutions. It can be customized as per the need. It can be used in private and
government educational institutions also. SIRS application is an internet based application we can
login to the system from anywhere irrespective of geographical area it will give seamless
navigation.

The paper (FU Yue, 2015) provides the particulars to carry out the performance, management and
decision-making functions of enterprises or organizations. Enormous grow of students is caused to
expand the functionality in the respective educational institutions. As student added to the
educational system it is difficult to manage and track student details. To overcome difficulties we
come up with this new approach student information management system with additional features.
This new approach will provide fast processing, efficient student tracking, and produces desired
result. This approach will allow students to save their personal details. It is more secure, reliable
and easy to use.

School Academic Management System is a web based system. This system running in the server
and provide service to user or management. The system is to facilitate teachers and administrators
to make data storage and review of data quickly and easily Currently, teacher and administrative
management using manual system, that is writes data in the book and keep it separately. Possibility
of data loss or damage occurred is high and the possibility of data accurate is low when using this
system.

In order to develop the new system, important parts that must be considered are study and analysis
the current system. For that, the current system had been study and analysis by make the interview
to administrative management. From the interview, flow management can be describing as another
paragraph. Almost all record in that school use manual system that is writing down in the record
book and keep in one room in the office. This manual system is not very consistence and
systematic. Teacher must write down the data from the result of student's paper exam to record
result book one by one and this manual system is not efficient and take much time to done all of it.
After write down to record result book, teacher must calculate mark all subject one by one and total
result for all students to put ranking of student in the class this is not systematic. After that, teacher
must make a copy to administrative management to keep that as a record.

(Asogwa et.al, 2015) explains that the benefits of Student Management (SMS) software are
enormous. In most universities, SMS directly benefits both the administration and students. To the
university management, the SMS carries most of the crucial administrative activities such as
admissions, enrolment, and examination (Asogwa et al, 2015; Kaloki, n.d; Kasozi, 2006). On the
other hand, (Pacio 2013) argues that in recent years, the use of online student information systems
provides students with the capabilities to register for new semesters and have timely access to their
academic and biographic records via internet enabled gadgets like smartphones and computers.

Similarly, (Almahdi et.al, 2012) noted that students gain the most from School Management
System. Preferably, students get a new platform not only to gain but also to express the knowledge
inside them. It was observed that the key benefits of SMSs to students revolves around the 24/7
web-based access to information about class and examination timetables, school events and
holidays. It was further ascertained that SMSs allows users to publish articles to share experience,
knowledge and views, and participate in discussion forums and therefore this contributes to the
digital library.

(Asogwa et.al, 2015) observed that despite revolutionizing the student information systems,
universities in their administrative or academic transaction services, and maintaining student’s
academic history and profile, paper work is still going on concurrently. Furthermore, (Igweonu et.al,
2013) also pointed out that inconsistency in power supply, inadequate funding during
implementation, inadequate technicians for computer maintenance, and limited access to internet
are some of the challenges that locks most universities in the use of Online Student Information
Systems.

Attendance (Freya et.al, 2016) is part of any system to keep track of the particular person. It is
mandatory process in educational system which directly reflects the student progress. In educational
institutes attendance management is normally a manual process. There is enormous grow in the
software industry which has privileged colleges to maintain the attendance system by using gadgets
which is the best way. As we are using the smartphones we not require maintaining attendance
register. It can beeasily done in mobile application. Faculty will be going to take the attendance
when class gets started. They will initially login to the system through mobile application. Once
attendance has been taken successfully for the class it will sent to sever through GPRS. The
faculties can also do the necessary functions like registering new students, deleting the information
about a particular student, modifying the information regarding the student etc. The main intention
of this process is to reduce the risk of manual efforts. It also reduces the time consumption. Also we
want to give importance to reduce the paper wastage that daily happens.

The model (Liangqiu M, 2015) utilizes computer aided system. The model plays main role in an
institution or in the college management. Initially, the system has developed with four layers based
on the hierarchy such as Web display layer where application is deployed and displayed for end
users. Business logic layer responsible for handling the functionality of the product. Data access
layer is responsible for viewing the data. Database layer responsible for storing the student data. In
Database layer ER diagram has been designed to provide data normalization. The process provides
complete information about student, faculties and educational institution. Third thing in this project
is to allowing user based on their categories. The paper (Almahdi et.al, 2015) providesend user to
seamless navigation to the application and ease of access. The model provides information
management storing of student academic reports. This model consists of various functionalities like
information about the courses available in the college starting from first grade to graduation. It also
enables students to enrol to particular course through online, online fees payment, examination
results, and also get notified when important events occur. All data stored and retrieved through the
application is secure. So to achieve this we have developed a powerful web based secured interface
application which supports all type of request which are coming from the students also which gather
sand corrects all student information.

To achieve this we have used similarity (Euclidean distance) algorithm. The results showed that the
new information gathered by the system has the ability to fill the requirement and do the error
correction in the traditional model. The papers (Lalit M, 2015) will explains how it is playing an
important role in the education domain. This system will provides seamless access through the web
based application to access and manage different departmentor all over the organization. This
system is used to mainly monitor the attendance for the university. Students are provided access to
login to application and view the progress report and attendance report. This systemis developed for
an engineering college it will provide end users to maintain their data with minimum effort. Initially
faculties/students get registered with the system once they finish registration process they can
access the system as well as they are able to do the changes in the data. As per the requirement users
has been granted with certain level permission to manage and track the student information. Either
student or faculty can upload and copy the statistics from the database. Since it is a web based
application which is accessible from any part of the world it has certain features like accessibility,
easy to use.

According to (Wang & Strong 1996) poor data quality can have significant social and economic
impacts. While academic institutions improve data quality with practical approaches and tools;
efforts to improve focus are tightly intensive on accuracy. They also talk about the fact that data
consumers have a greater concept of data quality that IS professionals recognize. Entries in the
organization’s information system can contain hundreds of data items. As the use of SMS increases;
the cost, complexity and quality of the data on which decisions are based on become critical (Huang
et al., 1998; Laudon, 1986).

FeKara, just like School Time, is an all-around school admin powerhouse, so long as you are
running an operation with 50 students or less. FeKara is a clean and modern school administration
and management software option which covers everything from exams and assignments to
budgeting and internal messaging for all staff. FeKara even includes a mobile app which can work
on all tablets and smartphones for convenient on-the-go use.
Weakness:
Similar to School Time, FeKara is limited by the amount of students, bandwidth, and storage which
can be managed on the free version of its software. A $10 per month upgrade to premium gives you
further options, including per student pricing model, increased bandwidth, and additional data
storage with all of the previously mentioned features.

Ascend SMS is an entirely free full-program school administration software made for Catholic and
Independent schools. Ascend SMS proudly notes, Ascends SMS does not believe schools should
have to pay exorbitant prices for something they fundamentally need to make their school work.
Ascend SMS offers a complete package. From offering a health management system for the school
nurse to a mobile app for parents to a simple discipline reporting system, Ascend SMS offers more
than many paid school administration software options. Administrators will be particularly attracted
to their heavy reporting feature, which quickly provides information on ACR, school vitality,
student performance, and more.
Weakness:
Ascend SMS is only free to Catholic and Independent schools. Ascend SMS also limits the number
of schools that it adds to its system each year.

If you are a smaller school, such as a private elementary or preschool with 50 students or less, the
free version of School Time may be just what you are looking for. No financial obligations or credit
cards are required for the free version of the program and it never expires. Features include board
management, grading systems, library databases, exam management, transportation, attendance, and
even dormitory management.
Weakness:
The most obvious disadvantage would have to be the limit on the amount of students that can be
accounted for in the free version of School Time. Of course this issue can be solved by
upgrading to the not-so-free versions of School Time, but doing so would negate the “free and
open source” solution you were looking for. So, as long as your school falls at or below 50
students, School Time can be a fit for you.